The 1990 Score Supplemental set (also known as the Score Rookie & Traded set) was a 110-card release issued in the same design style as the regular and very colorful 1990 Score Football set from earlier in the football season.
The set was released through Score’s dealer outlets and was only available in complete factory set form. Packed in a red cardboard box, the sets also came in a quantity of 60 factory sets per case. The Score logo, as well as the year 1990, was featured at the top of the box with the words NFL Football Rookie & Traded in big bold letters with the information that the set offers 110 player cards text is found at the bottom on the front of the box.
Aside from a few white stars on either side of the letters NFL, it’s pretty basic and straightforward. There are definitely no frills, bells or whistles here. It’s a little cardboard box. Open it and just get to the goods inside.
There are no insert sets, subsets or anything of that nature. It’s just a straight 110-card base set.
The card fronts have a big colorful picture of the player surrounded by a very deep blue and purple coloring up and down the sides of the card and at the top of the bottom of the card.
The color fades from light to dark as you look up to the top the cardboard. There are four lines at the top that stretch from the left side of the card to the right into the classic Score logo. The bottom of the card features the player’s name and the team name in a bar stretching across the card. The cards are a standard thickness and reside on standard cardboard.
The card backs feature a full color photo of the player in the upper right hand corner with the Score logo, the card number and the team helmet on the left hand side. The bottom half of the cardboard lists the players name, jersey number and position with the bottom third of the card offering basic biographical information. Every card in the set has a number with a ‘T’ suffix, designating it as a member of the traded set.
There are over 30 rookie cards featured but one stands above all others by 18,355 yards and that is the most valuable and most important rookie card of the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, Hall of Famer and Dallas Cowboys icon Emmitt Smith. It’s the best RC of the NFL’s all time leading rusher. Despite having been produced in sizeable quantities, you can’t get a much better selling point than that. PSA 10 copies routinely sell for well over $1,000.
The set, as you might imagine, features players that were traded during the season and the rookies that might have been missed in the base Score set. The only other superstars or Hall of Famers that have cards in the update offering are San Diego Chargers iconic linebacker Junior Seau and Seattle Seahawks Hall of Famer Cortez Kennedy. This technically isn’t the true rookie card of Seau or Kennedy as they both appeared in the base Score set but it is nice to see Seau wreaking havoc in his Chargers uniform and Kennedy in his Seahawks fit for the first time. You will also find Jeff George in his Indianapolis Colts gear on a Score card for the first time.
There’s also a nice looking card of Jets rookie receiver Rob Moore, who went on to an 11-year career, piling up nearly 10,000 yards before eventually becoming an NFL assistant. His rookie card doesn’t get as much respect as it probably should. Moore currently the receivers coach for the Tennessee Titans.
As far as star power in the traded players, and I am stretching a bit here, but you will find Andre Rison in his Falcons uni for the first time. He was a star for a period and he was hot when the Falcons were one of the coolest teams in the league led by Deion Sanders high stepping down the field and super fan M.C. Hammer roaming the sidelines.
Although the overall set itself nothing spectacular, it does carry one of the most significant rookie cards not only of the decade of the 1990s but of all time. That fact alone will always keep 1990 Score Supplemental Football a relevant and worthwhile product.
Complete boxed sets can usually be had for $125-$150, thanks to the popularity of the Emmitt Smith rookie. Prices for that card obviously vary based on condition with 9s currently available for $150-$200 and lower graded or raw copies significantly less.
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